Op-Eds / Letters To Editor

Here we go again. Northwestern Energy (NWE) will send their hired four lobbyists with large entertaining budgets to the 2019 state Legislature to impede or obstruct any expansion of solar or wind electrical power. Last session they blocked four bills that would have raised the current cap on solar.

Then comes her bold-faced lie, “Unlike the coal industry, the wind and solar industries require massive federal and state subsidies to be economically competitive.” According to a cleantechnica.com report Feb. 26, ”Studies by the International Energy Agency point out that global subsidies for fossil fuels outstrip those for renewable energy nearly 10-fold. The International Monetary Fund said if climate and environmental costs were included, then the fossil fuel subsides increased another 10 times to nearly $5 trillion a year.”

The recent American Lung Association report giving Missoula an F rating for poor air quality was disturbing. Particulate pollution, caused mostly by the intense summer wildfire smoke, can easily pass through tissue membranes and harm human lungs and the brain. That is alarming and the smoke season only seems to be getting worse.

I appreciate the efforts of the Sierra Club and other organizations in trying to push this country’s energy policy away from fossil fuels. Shaw claims that her organization, Colstrip United, “stands for common-sense solutions.” The only real common-sense solution to the existential crisis we face is to get off all fossil fuels as quickly as possible. And that starts with coal.